Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
Sasken, a communication software company based in India, provides research and development support to leading wireless device vendors from its offshore centres in India in an intellectual property-oriented product and services space. Sasken has faced a number of challenges in building an advanced multimedia player for high-end mobile handsets for the Japanese market. The Japanese market is one of the most advanced in the mobile services it offers, and is well ahead of the rest of the world in terms of handset functions and features. Located in an offshore centre far away from the target market, in a country where the mobile industry is still evolving, the Sasken project team faced a number of challenges in building a technology-intensive product according to its client's specific requirements. With high client expectations and norms regarding quality, completeness of the product and timeliness of delivery, the Sasken project manager had to successfully manage evolving technical requirements for the product from the company's offshore centre in Bangalore. Sasken's project team also had to cope with unavailability of tools and platforms, with communication and co-ordination challenges, and with cultural differences that were typical of offshore product development. This case illustrates how having clarity on product features, following a suitable process orientation, adhering to quality and timeline expectations, effectively dealing with a distributed team setup, and managing cross-cultural issues are important pre-requisites for success in offshore software development.
Swot Analysis of "Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience" written by Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sasken Offshore facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Project management, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sasken Offshore, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sasken Offshore operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sasken Offshore
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sasken Offshore
Strengths Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sasken Offshore in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Sasken Offshore is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sasken Offshore are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sasken Offshore is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Sasken Offshore has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Sasken Offshore is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sasken Offshore to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sasken Offshore to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sasken Offshore has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Analytics focus
– Sasken Offshore is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
High brand equity
– Sasken Offshore has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sasken Offshore to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sasken Offshore has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sasken Offshore has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sasken Offshore is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Weaknesses Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sasken Offshore is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, it seems that the employees of Sasken Offshore don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Need for greater diversity
– Sasken Offshore has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sasken Offshore 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sasken Offshore has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu suggests that, Sasken Offshore is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sasken Offshore products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sasken Offshore needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Sasken Offshore supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sasken Offshore vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sasken Offshore is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, is just above the industry average. Sasken Offshore needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sasken Offshore is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Sasken Offshore needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sasken Offshore to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sasken Offshore can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the consumer business. Now Sasken Offshore can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sasken Offshore can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sasken Offshore can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Sasken Offshore can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sasken Offshore has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sasken Offshore to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sasken Offshore has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sasken Offshore to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study. Sasken Offshore can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sasken Offshore can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sasken Offshore can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sasken Offshore to increase its market reach. Sasken Offshore will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sasken Offshore can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Sasken Offshore can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sasken Offshore can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sasken Offshore operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Sasken Offshore has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Sasken Offshore.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sasken Offshore high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Sasken Offshore needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, Sasken Offshore may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Sasken Offshore in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Sasken Offshore will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sasken Offshore has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sasken Offshore needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sasken Offshore can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Regulatory challenges
– Sasken Offshore needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sasken Offshore is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Sasken Offshore needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Sasken Offshore can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Sasken Offshore needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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